Literary Magazine Makes Debut at a Local High School

"The Troubadour" is Lynnfield High School's brand new literary magazine. This collection of poems and short stories, all submitted by LHS writers, is the brainchild of the Editor in Chief, Jeff Paul. The project is almost completely-student run. Although Paul waited until this past fall to begin work on the upcoming first issue, the idea has been years in the making.

"I've been working on the idea since seventh or eighth grade," said Paul in an interview on November 27. "I was thinking about going to a private high school, when I realized that schools like the nearby St. John's Prep and the Phillips Academies both had literary magazines. LHS did not." When Paul made the decision to come to LHS, he was glad to find that his ideas for what would become The Troubadour would also find a home.

Since Paul's arrival at LHS, The Troubadour has grown to a club of over ten members. "Hopefully," remarked Paul, "we'll have more members join for the next issue." With about fifteen submitted pieces for the first issue (scheduled to be released on December 7 at the time of the interview), the publication of the magazine is divided into four groups: editing, creative art, finances, and production. "While the purpose of the groups is efficiency, anybody can decide their own level of involvement by joining up to two groups or submitting pieces," said Paul. Each writer, depending on the length of the compositions, is limited to a maximum of three to five pieces, with an individual submission maximum length of three to four pages. Paul asks for pieces that "send a message; thought provoking pieces with substance. We don't want empty pieces." Each issue will take roughly three months to complete, estimates Paul.